Pennsylvania Catholic church using 'mafia-like' tactics to fight sex abuse bill

[brooklynite]

Source: The Guardian

The Catholic church in Pennsylvania has been accused of employing “mafia-like” tactics in a campaign to put pressure on individual Catholic lawmakers who support state legislation that would give victims of sexual abuse more time to sue their abusers.

The lobbying campaign against the legislation is being led by Philadelphia archbishop Charles Chaput, a staunch conservative who recently created a stir after inadvertently sending an email to a state representative Jamie Santora, in which he accused the lawmaker of “betraying” the church and said Santora would suffer “consequences” for his support of the legislation. The email was also sent to a senior staff member in Chaput’s office, who was apparently the only intended recipient.

The email has infuriated some Catholic lawmakers, who say they voted their conscience in support of the legislation on behalf of sexual abuse victims. One Republican legislator, Mike Vareb, accused the archbishop of using mafia-style tactics.

“This mob boss approach of having legislators called out, he really went right up to the line,” Vareb told the Guardian. “He is going down a road that is frankly dangerous for the status of the church in terms of it being a non-profit.”

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/jun/17/pennsylvania-catholic-church-sexual-abuse-bill-mafia-tactics

[bucolic_frolic]

1. Threats

None too veiled threats exchanged on both sides

at the root it's all about money

'don't pass this legislation that could cost us big time'

'your tactics could lose you tax exemptions'

raw politics, Machiavelli style

[rug]

2. +1

[Freddie]

3. "You vote for this bill and you'll be denied Holy Communion"

Sounds like what I'm reading between the lines. How utterly disgusting.
DH is a former Catholic and when the Philly paper published the list of priests accused of abuse, several where teachers at his HS. He wasn't surprised.

[davidthegnome]

4. I'm curious what the Vatican might have to say..

about this situation. Seems to me the Pope might want to start doing some defrocking.

[arithia]

5. They were also harassing parents of Catholic school children

http://www.pennlive.com/news/2016/06/catholic_schools_child_sex_cri.html

Sending letters asking them to put pressure on lawmakers to have this bill dropped like a hot tater. The church had the nerve to claim that the bill "has the potential to cripple our schools, catechetical programs, parishes, and charitable works that serve those in need."

Parents were understandably less than thrilled.

"We put our trust in the church to heal and to move past what was decades of cover up, really systemic cover-up of widespread abuse," said Dahlkemper. "The email sent to parents and the effort by the Catholic Church to continue are disgusting."


Ignoring the fact for a moment that these sick f*cks are defending pedophiles from prosecution, let's look at their actual argument because it's just THAT stupid. They are stating that if all of these pedos are brought to light, they won't have enough priests, teachers and volunteers to fill their needs. They are admitting that they are Pedobear powered, but expect people to ignore that fact because hey, sure, a few little kids might get diddled here and there but at least you can still send your precious babbies to racially segregated... I mean.... "quality" private schools. Don't forget your vouchers.

Come the f*ck on..... *headdesk*

[christx30]

6. Their arguement makes it more

desirable for a top-down cleansing. Good lord. "If you go after the sex abusers, we won't have enough people to do our jobs"!?

If it had been "there's no need for it because there aren't any here" would have been a better lie. Maybe give up the occasional priest for prosecution to be a sacrificial lamb. At least then there would have been a good pretence at caring for the kids.
I hope the council goes after these people with the fury of a thousand nuns.

[metalbot]

7. To be fair, I don't think that's what they are arguing

They are NOT arguing that if the pedos were prosecuted that they would not have enough priests to run schools/hospitals/parishes.

What they are concerned about is that the civil suits will completely cripple them financially (which is correct, and possibly the right outcome).

There's no point in attributing more malice here than there already is.

[arithia]

8. Obviously money is part of it

Money is ALWAYS part of it.

Yes, I am jumping to a conclusion. To be fair, it's more of a hop down off a familiar city curb than a flying leap off a cliff side.

http://www.mcall.com/news/breaking/mc-pa-catholic-priest-abuse-johnstown-altoona-20160301-story.html

"A grand jury report released Tuesday accuses two bishops who ran the Roman Catholic Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown of allowing at least 50 priests and other religious leaders to sexually abuse hundreds of children for decades.

...

The report says the late Bishop James Hogan and former Bishop Joseph Adamec kept filing cabinets with 115,042 secret documents detailing victims’ abuse claims. It tells how church officials ordered priests to undergo treatment while transferring them to other parishes, or intervened when local and state police made inquiries starting in the mid-1960s."

I *HIGHLY* doubt we have seen all of the pedos identified. In a system THAT corrupt, there are always more. Beyond the abusers themselves, we are talking hundreds of kids over decades. How many people witnessed abuse and did not contact the proper authorities? There are people complicit along the way who perpetuated this injustice.

They aren't trying to save their checkbooks at this point so much as they are trying to save their own @sses from jail time.

[Dawson Leery]

9. This intrinsically evil institution will never be made whole.

The RCC is losing members everyday and parish's are closing left and right. Vote with you conscience, leave the church behind.